The work of this project is directed to the development, testing and refinement of a comprehensive model to apply to the contemporaneous determinants of children's achievement behaviors, and the principles that account for developmental change in those behaviors over time. We study cognitive-motivational orientations, approach-avoidance behaviors in achievement tasks and situations, and proficiencies attained in several achievement areas. Our methods include cross-sectional studies and experiments. We also investigate, longitudinally, the demographic characteristics, parent behaviors, and subjects' own precursive behaviors as they are antecedent to achievement at later points in the developmental span. The generality-specificity of achievement orientations and behaviors along lines of skill similarity constitutes another branch of our work. Finally, the transcience or stability of achievement behaviors and related orientations are investigated, together with the factors that determine their modification.